Monthly Archive for April, 2018

Joan Alvado

Cuban Muslims, Tropical Faith

[ EPF 2017 – SHORT LIST ]

Cuba is one of the last countries in the world where Islam has entered. Although is still widely unknown, the number of Cubans embracing Islam has constantly increased in the recent years. This growth is strongly linked with the current scenario of changes in Cuba, which includes a higher tolerance towards religions.
With a current population around 3.000, Cuban Muslims are present in several districts of La Habana but also have expanded to many other provinces, like Camagüey, Santiago or Varadero. The growth of this community is strongly linked with the current scenario of changes in Cuba, which includes a higher tolerance towards religions.

Why a Muslim community is born in the middle of a Socialist Caribbean Island?

The “Cuban Muslims” project is not aiming to give closed answers, but provide clues for reflection. By delving into one of the most unique Muslim communities worldwide, an innovative approach to Cuba and Islam is generated. The goal is to break visual stereotypes, questioning issues like identity, faith and traditions.

Short Bio

Born in Altea in 1979, Joan Alvado has lived in Barcelona since 2005. His works have been published in media like The New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, The Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, El Pais, La Repubblica, Der Spiegel, Hurriyet, VICE, Descobrir Catalunya, 7K magazine, Huffington Post, Voima or Le Point, among others. Part of his work has been exhibited in several events and photo festivals in Spain, Cuba, Turkey, France, Slovenia or Italy. Since 2013, he has collaborated with the collective of Turkish photographers NAR Photos. His archive is distributed by agencies like AFP, Getty Images, Laif and Luz Photo. In 2015, his project “School of Shepherds” received the “Lens Culture Emerging Talent Award.” In 2016, his project “Cuban Muslims” won the “New FNAC Photography Talent” award in Spain.

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Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. The guys smoke a joint in their favorite place in the Isla, a former dump site in the old harbor area where they often gather to isolate, spend time in solitude, talk. The place is highly contaminated by the quaint Riachuelo flowing a few inches from them. They don’t care about the risk they run for their health. They love dangers and always live to the limit risking a lot. Life does not have a very high price for so many kids who live in these conditions and it is constantly threatened. All of them at least once in life thought of committing suicide. Riachuelo is one of the most contaminated rivers in the world. Its dirty waters delimit borders and people who have their houses in its proximity live in alarming conditions.

Karl Mancini

Amores Perros

In Buenos Aires the dirty waters of Riachuelo delimit borders and people who have their houses in its proximity live in alarming conditions. On one side it is Capital Federal, on the other it is Avellaneda, here Buenos Aires, there the Province. One of the suburbs on the river is called Isla Maciel. Amores Perros is a story of love and pain, a story of skin, street, drug, fight and violence. It is the story of some adolescents. Their stories are the stories of many Argentinean boys and girls who grow up on the streets, to whom the drug Paco has been sold since the age of eight years old because cocaine is too expensive (20 pesos is the cost of a dose of Paco, just over one euro), whose effects last about two minutes and condemn people to life of dependence and slavery, often to death.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. M. and her boyfriend R. in front of the staff entrance of the San Telmo’s stadium located in the center of the barrio. M.(14) lives with her mother and her brother(4). Her parents are separated. Her dad is very violent and he has beaten her since a long time. A few years ago her sister killed herself (she was 14 years old). A er her death, the problems of M. began. She is anorexic, self-defeating and she tried to commit suicide as her sister. She completely has no self-esteem. At school, she is a victim of bullying. She often runs away from school going to stay with her boyfriend R. (18) in the neighborhood of Barracas who wants to become a fashion designer.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. Children play football along the Pinzon, the main street of the Isla Maciel. Once it was a railway track who divided the original part of Isla Maciel from the new part, Dock Sur. It was the theather of many fights between the people who lived here. Now it is the poorest and the most dangeous part of the suburb.The first part of the street is controlled by the Paraguayan, the rest by the Argentinian. Drug deales are positioned on every corner.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. A. and K. sitted under the highway that crosses the port of Buenos Aires where they often spend time and sometimes sleep.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. A. cries abandoned in the arms of her boyfriend K. because of family’s daly problems. The only way to escape their daily horrible condition is love. Their relationship gives them strenght and confort from the lack of affects from the families and support from society. A. (14) lives with her mother, her sister (8) and her brother (7). Nobody knows anything about the father, the mother has been prostituting since many years. In 2016 there was a fire in her home. Her mother was working and she had the responsibility of the little brothers. It was a cold winter night, she went out with her friends leaving a candle lit by the bed of her little brother. The blankets took fire and he was saved thanks to F.’s intervention that pulled him out of the ames. Even today, F. remembers the feeling of his skin attacking on him. Her brother is burned on 85% of the body. An arm is deformed. A. passes from periods of addiction to periods clean. She prostitutes with the consent of her mother and her aunt to bring money home because she feels guilty of the fire. She got recently pregnant. K. (18) lives between his father’s house, his mother’s and the A.’s. His brother (16) has a mental retardation and has never been to school. His sister (7) has problems in talking. His dad is very violent, he is s drug addict and he has abused him. He frequently crippled his arms. Hip Hop is the only way out he has to escape the violence he daily lives.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. F. and K. on a bed after a night spent consuming drugs and alcoohol in the street.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. The guys inside the F. stepfather’s home. Here, they usually gather when the stepfather works all night long as a security guard in order to shelter themselves for the night time. They spend time rapping, drinking, consuming drugs and supporting themselves staying together in a group.

Buenos Aires. A. and K. behind her on the pedestrian bridge that accross the highway and connects Isla Maciel with Dock Sur. Isla was founded by Italian immigrants and port workers who dared to cross in the river and settle into what once was a swampsurrounded by the waters of Rio de la Plata, the dirty Riachuelo and the steam Maciel. Over time, a highway was constructed that cuts half the Isla delimiting two new zones, the favela of Villa Trankila and the Dock Sur with its towers and thanks to an infrastructure project over the past 10 years, Isla has lost its insular condition. This division is now theater of conflicts, a war for territorial control made by Narcos groups. Guys from the Isla are scared to go close to the towers and the same happens to guys who live in Dock Sur. The towers are extremely dangerous places controlled by narcos with weapons who sells drugs under the buildings. All the towers are connected from dark alleys and tunnels.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. M.(14) lives with her mother and her brother(4). Her parents are separated. Her dad is very violent and he has beaten her since a long time. A few years ago her sister killed herself (she was 14 years old). After her death, the problems of M. began. She is anorexic, self-defeating and she tried to commit suicide as her sister. She completely has no self-esteem. At school, she is a victim of bullying. She often runs away from school going to stay with her boyfriend R.(18) in the neighborhood of Barracas who wants to become a fashion designer.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. A.(14) lays on sofa abandoned in the street under the highway where she just spent the night. She lives with her mother, her sister (8) and her brother (7). Nobody knows anything about the father, the mother has been prostituting since many years. In 2016 there was a fire in her home. Her mother was working and she had the responsibility of the little brothers. It was a cold winter night, she went out with her friends leaving a candle lit by the bed of her little brother. The blankets took fire and he was saved thanks to F.’s intervention that pulled him out of the ames. Even today, F. remembers the feeling of his skin attacking on him. Her brother is burned on 85% of the body. An arm is deformed. A. passes from periods of addiction to periods clean. She prostitutes with the consent of her mother and her aunt to bring money home because she feels guilty of the fire. She got recently pregnant

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. K. (16) looks outside of a window after having a violent fight with some people in the street. The fight ended only thanks to the intervention of the police who detained her for a couple of hours. On her face and body the signs of the brutal fight. Adolescents like K. are always in danger. Currently the only solution for her is to enter in rehab community to detox herself and leave the street but it’s hard to do it without the permission of her mother and her complete will to recover. She has 3 younger sisters (13, 7 and 3 years old). Her father spent his days stealing and consuming paco, he was very violent. He beats her from the cradle. Her mother every time tried to defend her she was systematically beat, also with a stick, reason why she has big back problems. In 2016 her father was killed by the police. He escaped from the theft of a car, had surrendered, his arms raised, and they shot him the same in the street. Since that moment K. lives on the street. Her mother was abused up to the age of 18, reason why she seems completely stunned and she cannot provide for her family. K. has also been abused by 5 to 12 years by an uncle. She commonly uses paco, marijuana, cocaine, any kind of drugs and alcohol. She goes with her boyfriend F. to steal food when they are hungry and clothes when it’s too cold. She already had three abortions and was self-defeating by constantly cutting her arms. Recently she lost weight because of the high consume of Paco and she started to prostitutes herself. With the help of some social assistants and doctors she starting to think to rehab in recovery center.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. F. and K. kissing after an hard fight in the rehabilitation center from drugs and alcohool addictions.

Wrath, pain, impotence, misery not only economic are their daily lives. Everyone has inherited this situation by many factors: a family that doesn’t exist, violent, addicted or alcoholic parents, an absent government that ignores suburbs, a police often corrupt and accomplice who often comes to terms with the narcos. They have no life’s expectations. Being together is the only way to support each other, spending their days walking without rest looking for food, relieving anger in their raps, loving carnally and, at the same time, fighting like dogs.

A few minutes from the touristic and colorful barrio of la Boca (meaning due to the fact that it overlooks a stretch of Riachuelo, one of the most contaminated rivers in the world that flows into the Rio de la Plata) just taking a boat where an improvised Caronte drives you through the marsh waters to the opposite shore, it is possible to reach La Isla Maciel. It can also be reached by crossing the recently constructed Nicolas Avellaneda bridge, on both sides of which many drug dealers wait for phantoms who are looking for their goods.

La Isla was founded by Italian immigrants and port workers who dared to cross in the river and settle into what once was a swamp surrounded by the waters of Rio de la Plata, the dirty Riachuelo and the steam Maciel. Over time, a highway was constructed that cuts half the Isla delimiting two new zones, the favela of Villa Trankila and the Dock Sur with its towers and thanks to an infrastructure project over the past 10 years, Isla has lost its insular condition.

This division is now theater of conflicts, a war for territorial control made by Narcos groups. The only truce is possible on every Sunday in the football field located in the center of the Isla, where San Telmo plays, the barrio team, the team of everyone.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. Young girls playing inside the convent for children in distress property of the Foundacion Isla Maciel.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. F., K. and C. at the front door of K.’s mother’s house. C. is mother of 2 and she’s currently living between K.’s mother’s house and the street cause her family doesn’t want her at home anymore.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. A. cries and her boyfriend K. tries to console her while F. is eating a candy. The only way to escape their daily horrible condition is love. Their relationship gives them strenght and confort from the lack of affects from the families and support from society. A. (14) lives with her mother, her sister (8) and her brother (7). Nobody knows anything about the father, the mother has been prostituting since many years. In 2016 there was a fire in her home. Her mother was working and she had the responsibility of the little brothers. It was a cold winter night, she went out with her friends leaving a candle lit by the bed of her little brother. The blankets took fire and he was saved thanks to F.’s intervention that pulled him out of the ames. Even today, F. remembers the feeling of his skin attacking on him. Her brother is burned on 85% of the body. An arm is deformed. A. passes from periods of addiction to periods clean. She prostitutes with the consent of her mother and her aunt to bring money home because she feels guilty of the fire. K. (18) lives between his father’s house, his mother’s and the A.’s. His brother (16) has a mental retardation and has never been to school. His sister (7) has problems in talking. His dad is very violent, he is s drug addict and he has abused him. He frequently crippled his arms. Hip Hop is the only way out he has to escape the violence he daily lives.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. View from inside the San Telmo stadium during a football match of the Barra Brava, the hardest supporters of the the local team that plays in the third division. Supporters come from the isla, from dock sur, villa trakila and from the touristic suburb of San Telmo. The only truce between the narcos of the suburbs is possible on these occasions in this field located in the center of the Isla. San Telmo is the team of everyone, without any difference of provenience.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. Kids playing in the street. One girl jumps from one of the many burned stolen cars abandoned along the street. Behind her on a wall it is written “Poverty or??? mhmm”.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. K. and one of her younger sisters in one of the alleys of the barrio. Many people doesn’t have access to primary goods and doesn’t have drinkable water at home. Drug deales are positioned on every corner. The youngsters are the most in danger.

Buenos Aires. Isla Maciel. The guys try to enter inside one house of the barrio to steal some food. It happens frequently when they remain with nothing to eat.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. F. smokes in front of one of the entrances of the football stadium where San Telmo team plays before the start of a match. San Telmo currently plays in the third division. Supporters of the team come from the isla, from dock sur, villa trakila and from the touristic suburb of San Telmo. The only truce between the narcos of the suburbs is possible on these occasions in this field located in the center of the Isla. San Telmo is the team of everyone, without any difference of provenience.

People who live in neighborhood like this are often labeled as criminals, discriminated, relieved of any opportunity to improve their status, to have access to structures that can help them or achieve a different job and future for themselves and their families. Abandoned people who organize themselves to not die. Here there are cases of 12-year-old’s adolescents who want to kill themselves having no life’s expectations. Being together is the only way to support each other. Some guys struggle to keep themselves from dying, others let themselves go with no chances to come back.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. A. dangerously in balance close to the highly contaminated by the quaint Riachuelo flowing a few inches from them. They don’t care about the risk they run for their health. They love dangers and always live to the limit risking a lot. Life does not have a very high price for so many kids who live in these conditions and it is constantly threatened. All of them at least once in life thought of committing suicide. Riachuelo is one of the most contaminated rivers in the world. Its dirty waters delimit borders and people who have their houses in its proximity live in alarming conditions.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. “Even not death will separate us. From heaven I will support you” is written on a wall of the San Telmo’s football field in the center of Isla Maciel by the supporters. They come from the isla, from dock sur, villa trakila and from the touristic suburb of San Telmo to watch the matches. The only truce between the narcos of the suburbs is possible on these occasions in this field located in the center of the Isla. San Telmo is the team of everyone, without any difference of provenience.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. F. and K. at the door of her room in her mother’s house after a moment of intimacy

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. Children play football on a field in a sunny autumn day.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. F. and K. in a cold early winter morning in her room.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. A little girl plays with her dog in front of the house where she lives with her mother M., her aunt and 8 among brothers, sisters and cousins. Her mother, who is addict and prostitutes herself, and two sisters have recently been diagnosed with syphilis.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. K. and one of her younger sisters running out of their house.

Buenos Aires, Isla Maciel. A.,K. and F. in the rehabilitacion center from drug and alcooholic addictions they attends frequently.

Buenos Aires. K.,F. and A. sitted on the top of one of the towers of Dock Sur. Dock sur and Isla Maciel originally were the same neighborhood founded by Italian immigrants and port workers who dared to cross in the river and settle into what once was a swamp surrounded by the waters of Rio de la Plata, the dirty Riachuelo and the steam Maciel . Over time, a highway was constructed that cuts half the Isla delimiting two new zones, the favela of Villa Trankila and the Dock Sur with its towers and thanks to an infrastructure project over the past 10 years, Isla has lost its insular condition. This division is now theater of conflicts, a war for territorial control made by Narcos groups. Guys from the Isla are scared to go close to the towers and the same happens to guys who live in Dock Sur. The towers are extremely dangerous places controlled by narcos with weapons who sells drugs under the buildings. All the towers are connected from dark alleys and tunnels.

Bio

Karl Mancini (b.1978) is an Italian documentary photographer based out of Rome and Buenos Aires. He studied photojournalism in New York at the International Center of Photography (ICP). Since 2001 he has worked in more than 90 countries, with a particular preference for Asia and South America, as a freelance photojournalist and writer, following socio-historical and political events and focusing on issues such as gender violence (to which he is working on since 12 years), war aftermaths, minorities, human rights, migration, the tragic story of landmines. His longterm work “Ni una menos” about the feminicide and violence against women has been shortlisted at the Sony World Photography Award 2017, won the 3rd prize at the Luis Valtuena Humanitarian Photography Award, the 2nd prize at Days Japan International Photojournalism Award 2018, the 2nd prize at the Kolga Awards 2017 and was finalist at Lugano Photo Days 2017. His works have also been exhibited in USA, England, Russia, Australia, India, Japan, Italy, Greece, Spain, Switzerland and in many important international festivals, earning him several awards in many prestigious competitions. His stories have been featured in some of the most prominent magazines and newspapers from all over the world and he regularly collaborate with International NGOs and international magazines and newspapers such as Newsweek, Stern Magazine, Der Spiegel, Marie Claire, CNN, Vanity Fair, Internazionale, Amnesty International Wordt Vervolgd, El Pais, El Mundo, Io Donna, NZZ am Sonntag, Woz, il Venerdi, La Repubblica and many others. In 2014 he was selected as one of the Emerging European Talents by the online magazine LensCulture and was one of the finalists at Portfolio Italia-Fiaf. In 2015 he published his first book, ITALIANSKIJ, about the Italian community in Crimea persecuted during the Stalinian Purges.

He’s currently working on violence against women extending his long term project ‘Ni una menos’ to the other Latin American countries where the situation is alarming. The common line that sadly connect so many and different countries is gender violence in all its aspects (domestic, psychological, physical, economic, institutional, cultural, obstetrical). He strongly believes that it’s very important to give visibility and voice to victims who doesn’t have it, inspiring more of them to come forward to tell their stories and bring pressure on the governments. At the same time he’s working on an other long term “La linea invisible” about life in the suburbs of South America through the eyes of the youngsters.

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Ekkarat Punyatara

Black Day

Thailand is one of the last countries in the world that most of the people still have so much love for the king. The king is the soul of the nation. I grew up in Thailand. As a Thai, I thought I had known well about the love of Thai people toward our king but not knowing well enough till the day King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away.

October 13, 2016 after the prime minister officially confirmed the news I quickly headed to Siriraj hospital, where the king’s body was for shooting. I got there about 8.30 pm. which was quite late. The soldiers already started removing people out of the hospital for a parade to deliver the body to Grand Palace for the funeral. I stuck in front of the gate with many people. Some people were still crying and many of them still had the crying mark on their faces.

Time passing by but seems more and more people were coming. Some people started siting down on the street then many people followed. Some people started praying for the king then many people followed. Some people started singing a song for the king then many people followed. I asked if there is anyone know that the mourning event would happen but no one know. As a normal people I’m sure everyone knew that they won’t be able to get inside but they just wanted to be there. I can feel at that time they didn’t even care what would happen actually they just wanted to be close by their beloved king.

It was not just that day. It kept go on like this after the bureau placed the body at the Grand Palace for the formal funeral as well. Thousands of people everyday queuing for praying respect the king inside the Palace. And many more were sitting around the wall praying and even touching wall. The image of people touching the wall was magically moved me. I was very intrigued by the melancholy I felt and it was the feeling that made these people came so far for just touching the wall. It made me, not as a journalist but as a Thai awared that I need to document the feeling of myself and Thai people toward this important historical moment of the country.

Black Day is my personal project during a year long mourning capturing the air of melancholy surrounded Thailand. It is the evidence of the emotion of Thais toward the lost of the people who is the heart of the country. It is the fiction I hope it is non-fiction.

Bio

Ekkarat Punyatara is a National Geographic Thailand’s photo editor and staff photographer based in Bangkok, Thailand. His photography is inspired by fascination in Thai culture that he was rooted since childhood by his conservative family. Beside worldwide assignments as an outsider, Ekkarat will be in his home country documenting and portraiting the lives of his beloved country as the sight of the insider.

David Arribas González

Scars / Cicatrices

[ EPF 2017 – SHORT LIST ]

Spain is one of the few countries where the hunting with greyhounds is a legal activity. What was a way of survival for the familiar core in rural areas, now (when it is not a vital activity anymore) has been reinvented and turned into a sport, preserving is practice into the traditional culture of the country.

At the ending of the hunting season, in February, the dogs that are not useful, either by injuries, lack of competivity or by the age, are abandoned or, in the worst of cases, are deleted using highly aggressive practices such as being hung.

Short Bio

(Spain. 1978) Arribas studied photography in Madrid from 2010 to 2015 and learnt a lot in different workshops and courses related to this branch of photography with photographers such as Antonio Heredia, Manu Brabo, Susana Giron, and Antoine d’Agata.

He continues studying self-taught photography and attending courses and seminars. At the moment, he is based in Madrid, Spain and dedicates himself to the accomplishment of photographic works of long route related to social projects and human character.

Loulou d’Aki

Down by the Water

[ EPF 2017 – SHORT LIST ]

The first times I went to Iran I did so to work on a personal project about Iranian youth and their aspirations as a part of a larger project I was working on across the Middle East. My subjects and I spent a lot of time together during the portrait sessions and at some point they would all ask me what I had seen of the country so far. All of them seemed to agree that I really had to go down to the Persian Gulf and visit the islands Hormuz, Qeshm, and Kish where life seemed to be relatively free in comparison to Tehran and where many young people from the mainland would try to spend some time every year.

View on the shipyard in Qeshm from a wooden Lenj in construction.

Sahar with her walking stick, poses for a portrait in a salt cave on Qeshm island, dressed for inside. The island has become a place where young people can experience more freedom away from the Islamic republic’s restrictions to a certain extent.

Two Lenje ships at a port in Qeshm.

A broken wall with faded murals of martyrs from the Iran-Iraq war next to the Portogese castle on Hormuz island.

View from the Portuguese castle on Hormuz island. Once upon a time, Hormuz city had an important harbor – until the Persian King, Shah Abbas, reconquered the island and decided to move the principal port to the mainland since he did not trust the islanders.

Iran sits on one side of the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian sea. It’s considered the world’s most important throughway for oil – 30% of the world’s seaborne traded oil goes through the strait but despite of its natural riches, the inhabitants along the Persian Gulf are amongst the poorest in the country. 5 kilometres off the mainland, southeast of the port city Bandar Abbas, lies Hormuz, once upon a time the main port in the strait, visited by Marco Polo who praised the island where tens of thousands had settled. For centuries, the countries on both sides of the Gulf were in good relations and people travelled the region without passports. Today the population is below 10,000 and unemployment is high ever since relations with Oman soured during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidency. Before, locals would go to Oman in the morning and return at night with smuggled goods to sell in the mainland city of Bandar Abbas.

Jhina, a recently graduated art student, poses for a portrait on the porch to her temporary room on Qeshm island where she has come to relax and get inspiration for her first exhibition in Tehran.

Working instruments from Pakistan in the shipyard on Qeshm island. The majority of the workers are paperless Pakistani men.

Local men in traditional clothes watch as an assistant prepare for the dolly, during a documentary shooting on Qeshm island.

The obligatory picture of the spiritual leader in a broken frame while the sleepy eyed receptionist calls me a taxi.

Hippies wash up by a salt cave well.

Down by the water, a married couple help their daughter with homework before sunset.

The island Qeshm, 60 kilometres away, is a free trade zone where paperless Pakistani ship builders keep up the tradition of wooden ship construction, side by side with traditional islanders and where youngsters from the mainland travel to feel a bit more free, away from the watching eye of the Islamic republic on the mainland.

A man finalizes a wooden ship at port in Laft.

A Camel guide stands next to his animal, waits for tourists to come his way as the sun starts setting on Kish island.

Down by the water, girls in chadors take pictures of each other at sunset on Kish island.

T., a Pakistani worker, climbs down from a Lenj in construction.

Short Bio

Loulou d’Aki is a photographer, member of Agence VU’. She was born and raised on the Swedish seaside and graduated with a Master in photography at ISFCI in Rome, Italy. Since then she has lived and worked across Europe, North America, Japan and the Middle East.

As a photographer she is interested in how human beings are affected by the society in which they live, the influence of borders and the idea of freedom.

Alongside commissioned work Lou focuses on various long term projects, such as Make a Wish, a photo essay looking at how the hopes and dreams of youth in conflict zones are conditioned by society. The project recently won Cortona on the Move dummy award and will be published as a book in 2018. Lou is a Swedish Arts council grantee for a project called Mother of choice, which she is currently working on, a documentary work about self chosen single motherhood in Sweden.

Lou was a singer before she became a photographer. She speaks five languages and lives in Athens.